Petr
12-02-2005, 10:54 PM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050618/hl_afp/healthchinaobesity
At least 200 million Chinese to be obese in 10 years
BEIJING (AFP) - At least 200 million people in China will suffer from obesity within 10 years if current trends spurred by unhealthy lifestyles continue.
China currently has 90 million obese citizens whose weight is more than 20 percent in excess of their accepted level, said the Information Times, citing medical experts.
Among these, trends among youths were most disturbing, it added.
Ten percent of Chinese children were obese with the number increasing by eight percent annually, Chen Chaogang, a leading doctor at the hospital attached in Zhongshan University in southern Guangdong province, told the newspaper.
High fat fast-food diets and round-the-clock snacking were to blame, it said, adding Chinese had happily adopted more sedentary lifestyles centred around the television, computer and automobile.
Recent research has highlighted significant differences in China between regions and the sexes.
Overweight and metabolic syndrome were higher among people in northern China than in the south, among urban residents rather than country-dwellers and among women more than among men, according to a study published earlier this year in the medical journal the Lancet.
Although obesity in China largely comes from unhealthy lifestyles, genetic factors were responsible for 16 percent of China's obese, the Information Daily said.
At least 200 million Chinese to be obese in 10 years
BEIJING (AFP) - At least 200 million people in China will suffer from obesity within 10 years if current trends spurred by unhealthy lifestyles continue.
China currently has 90 million obese citizens whose weight is more than 20 percent in excess of their accepted level, said the Information Times, citing medical experts.
Among these, trends among youths were most disturbing, it added.
Ten percent of Chinese children were obese with the number increasing by eight percent annually, Chen Chaogang, a leading doctor at the hospital attached in Zhongshan University in southern Guangdong province, told the newspaper.
High fat fast-food diets and round-the-clock snacking were to blame, it said, adding Chinese had happily adopted more sedentary lifestyles centred around the television, computer and automobile.
Recent research has highlighted significant differences in China between regions and the sexes.
Overweight and metabolic syndrome were higher among people in northern China than in the south, among urban residents rather than country-dwellers and among women more than among men, according to a study published earlier this year in the medical journal the Lancet.
Although obesity in China largely comes from unhealthy lifestyles, genetic factors were responsible for 16 percent of China's obese, the Information Daily said.